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Final preparations being made for the Cedar County Fair

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HARTINGTON — The Cedar County Fair is coming up with new entertainment and fun activities.

With any big event, it takes a lot of manpower to get everything organized. The Cedar County Fair Board has 17 members; each person plays a role in the fair's setup.

It takes a little over a year to plan out the Fair week’s entertainment and put new ideas into action.

“The Board has already started for the 2022 fair layout, so we have been working hard on this year’s Cedar County Fair’s entertainment and vendors for a while now,” said Greg Heine, President of the Fair Board, “It is exciting to bring big entertainment names to our Grand Stand after last year and barely having anything.”

Each year, the Board works on getting bigger and better entertainment to bring in people from all over the state.

“Cedar County is known across the nation for the names we bring in for our County Fair,” said Allen Heine. The music artists — Lanco, Jimmy Allen and Gabby Barret — are not the only thing this fair is offering. At the fair, you can find food trucks, a carnival, a cornhole tournament, sand volleyball, the rodeo, exhibits, livestock shows, and a lot more.

For the past two years, the Cedar County Fair has not had a carnival because of contracts and COVID. This year they found a Nebraska-based carnival to come in for people of all ages to enjoy.

“The Board did not want just any carnival group to be at our fair,” said Greg Heine, “We looked all over the nation to find what would be the best for our fair-goers.”

The Grounds and Building Committee has worked hard to make sure everything looks clean and professional for the fair.

“This year was a little harder: our crew had more to clean up and get ready for since we did not have to do half of it last year due to COVID,” said Fair Board member, Jim Specht.

They have added sand volleyball courts and finally finished the new show arena for the 2021 Fair.

Something important to the board members is making sure things are family-friendly.

“Being a mom of four, I know that having events for the entire family is important,” said Angie Sudbeck, treasurer of the Board, “The PRCA rodeo is a perfect event for everyone to enjoy.”

A majority part of the fair is the youth in 4-H and FFA. 4-H and FFA kids are challenged to create unique projects and show livestock competing against each other.

“It is so nice to see the kids and young adults show off their creativity,” said Mary Lou Steffen.

Anyone can enter projects in the open class, but be sure to check out the 4-H exhibits.

On a daily basis, there will be livestock shows including poultry, waterfowl, rabbits, cattle, pigs, goats, sheep and horses.

This year, youth will have plenty of competition in the Poultry and Rabbit Show.

“Over a 100 poultry and rabbits have entered to show at the Fair,” said Board member Jeff Hochstein, “This is the most we have ever had. We have had to bring in extra cages to make sure we have the room.”

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